Email Campaign Testing Tips

We encourage every MailChimp user to test each campaign before you send it. Note the limit on the number of
test emails you can send per campaign and per 24-hour period. If you've hit your test email sending limit, try
these tips to continue testing.

General Testing Tips

Use the Link Checker.
The
Link Checker tool looks at the links in your campaign and pings the sites to make sure there's a functioning site on the other side.

Select
Enter Preview Mode from the
Preview and Test drop-down menu to check your design as you go along. Preview Mode shows you if any images are broken or if your general layout is working properly. It is designed to give the best approximation of what the campaign will look like when received, so definitely send test emails to get the best idea of how your campaign will render.

Select the
Send a Test Email option on the
Preview and Test drop-down menu near the end of your design process. After your content has been added and you think you're almost ready to send, select the
Send a Test Email option to send a test to your own email address.

Don't just test to your own email account. Every email client renders HTML differently, so your campaign's appearance may vary slightly from one email client to the next. To get the best idea of how your campaign will display in your recipients' inboxes, set up email accounts on all the most popular email clients, like Gmail, Yahoo, and Hotmail, and send tests to those account. You can also use our
Inbox Inspector feature to see how your campaign will look in different email clients.

Customize how your campaign looks when shared. Select
Social Cards from the
Preview and Test drop-down menu to
choose a featured image and text to display when your campaign is shared on social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter.

Use the
Push to MailChimp Mobile option on the
Preview and Test drop-down menu to view the campaign on your mobile device.Send tests to your phone, so you can see how your campaign will render when viewed on mobile devices.

Ask for testing volunteers. Ask friends and colleagues to review your campaign content. Since they are not as familiar with your content as you are, they will likely catch typos or unclear content that you may have missed.

Testing Merge Tags

In
Preview Mode, select
View header info, and then click on the
View Live Merge Info button to see your merge tags in action.

You can also
test merge tags by sending your campaign to a test list. When you send tests using the
Send a Test Email option from the
Preview and Test drop-down menu, the merge tags aren't fully live because we're not pulling any data from your list. When you send to a live list (even if it's a test live list) we can activate the merge tags.

Troubleshooting Specifics

Are all the images in your email working? If you used MailChimp's templates, make sure the image has
uploaded properly. If you
provided your own code, make sure you're using absolute paths for images, meaning you need your whole image URL, not just the file location on your server. Also check to make sure that all of your images are hosted on your public web server, and aren't on a password-protected site.

Are all your links working properly? Click on each of your links and use the
Link Checker to make sure they are working. Remember that
click tracking is not activated when you use the
Send a Test Email option, so a link in a test email will not redirect through our click-tracking feature like it will when sent to a list.

Is open and click tracking enabled? We enable tracking by default, but you can check your settings on
Setup step of the Campaign Builder. If they are disabled, you won't see open and click activity in your campaign report.

Are you getting blocked by spam filters? Keep
spam filters in mind as you create your campaigns to make sure they won't get stuck in your recipients' spam filters.

More testing opportunities

Delivery Doctor lets you test your campaign with many common spam filters and consumer ISPs, giving you insight into exactly what parts of your campaign might cause delivery issues. Delivery Doctor is included in all paid accounts.

Inbox Inspections let you see your campaign in your subscribers' favorite email clients. Monthly Plans include the 25 inspections per week. Single inspections can be purchased for $3 each on Pay As You Go and Forever Free Plans.